The present invention relates to a cooling system for cooling rotary components of a turbine and particularly relates to a cooling system for imparting cooling flow in the same general circumferential direction of the rotary component to be cooled.
In turbomachinery, for example, a turbine and compressor combination, various rotating parts of the machinery must be cooled. To accomplish this, compressor discharge air is typically bled from the compressor. Continued demand for increased machine performance has resulted in increasing coolant supply temperatures and reduced bleed or parasitic flow allocated for cooling hardware. That is, machine performance degrades as increasing proportions of compressor discharge air are applied for cooling purposes. A particular problem arises in cooling rotating parts, for example, the flange connection between the compressor and turbine rotor. As a result of increased heat applied to the cooling medium in reaching the surface velocity of the rotating component, reduced cooling effect occurs and the requirement for parasitic cooling flow increases. Accordingly, there is a demonstrable need for a turbomachinery cooling system wherein the work necessary to cool the rotating components is substantially reduced, resulting in decreased parasitic cooling flow.